LoTRO: So You Want To Be A Warden

As I have played through The Lord of The Rings Online as a Warden, I have noticed that the Warden as a class is largely misunderstood by Wardens and non-Wardens both. The excellent site LoTRO Info does not have any post-Moria class guides (the two classes added in the Mines of Moria expansion were the Rune-Keeper and the Warden, for those not aware), so I am writing this guide with the intent of disseminating some information about the class.

The Warden's primary role is as a tank, the party member who stands on the front line of combat and takes the hits (and the repair bill) so that the squishies don't have to. The Warden has secondary roles in corruption removal (corruptions are buffs that monsters in Moria apply to themselves, and Wardens are the best class in the game at removing them); interrupting monsters' skill inductions (Wardens are not quite as good at this as Champions are with their Clobber skill, but it's a near thing); and off-off-OFF-healing with the late-game Conviction gambit, which provides a small but useful bit of extra healing for the group.

Pluses of the Warden class:

• Nigh-invulnerability, thanks to good armor value and very high evade/block/parry ratings, combined with extensive self-healing abilities.
• The best solo class in the game (see previous point)
• Excellent tank class, capable of being a party's primary tank in any situation.
  

Minuses:

• The lowest DPS of any class in LoTRO, making soloing a slow process.
• Class requires memorization and thought to play well (this may be a minus for some people, heh)
• Because of our need to build threat-generating gambits, Wardens cannot generate instant threat on a target the way that Guardians can (Warden threat is fast, but not instantaneous).

Wardens are unique in LoTRO (and to the best of my knowledge, unique among MMOs) in having "gambits" instead of skills. Wardens do not get the dozens of skills that other classes get. Instead, Wardens get a small set of skills to build gambits, as well as several stances and a couple of cooldown skills, and that is all their skills. Wardens use their three main skills to add icons to the "Gambit Panel," then a fourth skill to "release" or "trigger" the gambit that the icons add up to. Wardens eventually learn 35 individual gambits which range from two icons up to five icons in length.

The gambit system and the necessity of memorizing a large number of icon combinations means that playing a Warden is less like playing an MMO and more like playing a fighting game. I have found that playing a Warden requires a much higher degree of attentiveness to combat than other classes. When playing a Champion or a Hunter, for example, it's easy to "phone in" the combat, just cycling through a handful of skills in a preset order. When playing a Warden, that is nearly impossible, as well as highly impractical. Because gambits are not built instantly, a Warden must be constantly paying attention to the flow of combat, predicting what gambit will be needed next, and what gambit will be needed after that, while watching the Gambit Panel to make sure that the gambits are being built correctly (a bit of lag can really wreck a gambit if you're not paying attention), and on top of all that, the tanking Warden needs to be paying attention to the group to make sure that any adds are being handled, that the healer isn't taking aggro, and all the other various and sundry duties of a tank.

Unlike the Champion's Fervor, the Hunter's Focus, or the Rune-Keeper's Attunement, Wardens have no mechanical limitations on what gambits they can throw at what time--the choice of which gambit to build is purely tactical. This gives Wardens a tremendous degree of flexibility and the ability to "change gears" very quickly to respond to changing combat conditions.

How Gambits Work

Wardens learn four gambit skills:

• Gambit Default, the gambit "trigger" skill, which changes its name and effect to the gambit you have built.
• Quick Thrust, a basic melee attack, which adds a Spear icon to the Gambit Panel.
• Shield Bash, a melee attack which deals a flat amount of Common damage, has a small chance to apply a short-lived block rating buff, and adds a Shield icon to the Gambit Panel.
• Warden's Taunt, which deals a small amount of Light damage and a small Light DoT, has increased threat, and adds a Fist icon to the Gambit Panel.

With those four skills, Wardens build and then release all their gambits. A bit of terminology: gambits which start with a Spear icon are called "spear gambits" (I know, whodathunkit) and are the damage-oriented gambits. Gambits which start with a Shield icon are "shield gambits," and have to do with healing or buffing. Finally, "fist gambits" are threat-generating gambits.

In spite of all the earlier talk about memorizing a mess of gambits, most of the gambits are organized quite logically and tend to build on each other in a reasonable way. For example, the two-icon gambit The Boot (Spear, Shield) interrupts inductions and has a chance to daze the target for a few seconds. Add another Spear icon to The Boot, and it becomes Onslaught (Spear, Shield, Spear), which still interrupts inductions but trades the daze chance for three attacks (which deal a percentage of your weapon damage). Now add another Shield Icon to Onslaught, and you get Wall of Steel (Spear, Shield, Spear, Shield), which still interrupts inductions with its three full-weapon-damage attacks, and gains a hefty but short-lived parry rating buff. You see patterns throughout the gambit list: the healing gambits are representative, with (Shield, Spear) being a small heal and working up to (Shield, Spear, Shield, Spear, Shield) for the biggest heal.

There are a handful of oddballs which do require memorization, but much of the list can be derived from patterns rather than memorization.

The Short List Of Gambits To Remember

DPS: Despite the big numbers on the tooltip for late-game damage gambits such as Warden's Triumph, the best choice for reliable damage output is Wall of Steel. WoS is quick to build, being a four-icon gambit with no Fist icons (Warden's Taunt, the Fist icon skill, has a long animation associated with it, so Fist icons cost a disproportionate amount of time to add to a gambit), and because WoS has three attacks, you have three separate chances to hit the target, rather than the all-or-nothing of Warden's Triumph's single large attack. Additionally, the parry buff from WoS is virtually always useful: remember, Wardens survive by not being hit.

Threat: The Warden's main tool for reliable threat generation is the two-icon gambit Precise Blow (Fist, Spear), which has "increased threat" and "increased threat over time." Being a two-icon gambit, it is eminently spammable and costs relatively little power. Using nothing but this gambit, I have held aggro off Hunters in Strength Stance and off of Guardians (in other words, Precise Blow pumps out some serious threat). It is your best friend when it comes to single-target threat generation.

When it comes to multi-target threat generation, you have two useful tools: War Cry and Exultation of Battle. War Cry (Fist, Shield) is another gambit which generates threat over time, and has a large range of effect and affects up to ten targets. However, it is mostly useless unless you are wielding a Legendary Weapon which has a War Cry Threat Up legacy on it, because the threat generation of the unaugmented War Cry is nothing to write home about.

Exultation of Battle (Fist, Spear, Shield, Fist, Shield) is the Warden's best friend in situations where you are engaging many enemies at once. EoB generates threat over time as well as having a morale drain effect: every four seconds, the enemies affected by EoB lose a small chunk of health and the Warden gains all the health the enemies lose. Obviously, when you are surrounded by many enemies, that morale drain effect can be a significant heal. Like War Cry, Exultation of Battle requires a Threat Up legacy on a Legendary Weapon in order to generate a useful amount of threat.

Wardens have several gambits which transfer threat from other party members to the Warden. Two of those in particular are useful: Dance of War (Shield, Fist, Shield, Fist), which transfers a significant amount of threat from each member of the party to the Warden and also applies a hefty buff to the Warden's evade rating. Add one more Shield to Dance of War and you get the far more useful Conviction (Shield, Fist, Shield, Fist, Shield), which transfers the same significant amount of threat, but trades the evade buff for a smallish heal over time for the entire party, including the Warden. Note that Conviction is the only non-selfish thing that Wardens can do (generally speaking, we're a bunch of selfish jerks).

Buffs: As previously mentioned, Wall of Steel (Spear, Shield, Spear, Shield) has a very nice parry rating buff attached to it. When you're a bit over your head and need to add to your defensive ratings, Shield Mastery (Shield, Spear, Fist, Spear) applies a buff with a duration of one minute which provides a hefty bonus to your evade, block, and ranged block ratings. Combine Wall of Steel and Shield Mastery, and a high-level Warden can max out his defensive ratings across the board.

Healing: Start with Persevere (Shield, Spear) and just keep alternating Shield and Spear. The longer the gambit, the bigger the heal, so just build as long a gambit as you can afford to (before whatever is making you require healing gets around to making you dead, I mean), then throw that gambit and start building another, different, one. The heal over time buffs from each of the healing gambits stack with each other, so a Warden who is concentrating solely on healing can keep multiple HoTs ticking away at all times. When fighting multiple targets, the morale drain gambits Fierce Resolve (Fist, Spear, Shield), Resolution (Fist, Spear, Shield, Fist), and Exultation of Battle (Fist, Spear, Shield, Fist, Shield) can be thrown into the mix and stacked with each other to keep the Warden healthy while dealing a bit of damage to the enemies.

Corruption Removal: There's only one gambit for this. Reversal (Spear, Fist, Shield) hits the target for a smallish amount of damage and also removes one random corruption from the target.

Power Restore: Again, only one gambit does this. The Dark Before Dawn (Spear, Shield, Spear, Fist, Spear) can only be used when the Warden is below half health. It deals two moderate weapon attacks and restores a goodly chunk of power. Because gambits do not have cooldowns, Dark Before Dawn can be spammed as long as your health is below 50% to keep restoring power. This gambit is often essential in long fights when you do not have a Lore-Master in your group to pass you power, because Wardens can burn through their power reserves at a staggering rate.

Stances: These aren't actually gambits, but as long as I'm talking tactics, I feel it's appropriate to mention them. Wardens learn three stances (and an optional fourth stance gained by slotting a Legendary Trait):

• Determination: This stance does only one thing, but it does it well. When in Determination stance, the Warden's in-combat morale regeneration (ICMR) is increased tremendously, well above what any other class can achieve.
• Conservation: This stance does for in-combat power regeneration (ICPR) what Determination does for ICMR, and it also provides small bonuses to the Warden's evade and block ratings. This is the most common stance for Wardens to be in, because Wardens often have power issues.
• Recklessness: This stance is the odd man out, because it is focused on DPS. In Recklessness, the Warden's attack speed and melee damage is increased, but his evade and block ratings are reduced. This stance is very rare for Wardens to use, because Warden DPS is laughably bad (so the stance's buffs aren't exactly working miracles) and there are few occasions when a Warden is in a party and is not tanking.
• Way of the Warden is the stance which is earned by slotting a legendary trait of the same name. Unlike the other stances, this one has a cooldown (15 minutes), and can only be turned on during combat, and only lasts until combat ends. It is excellent for long and/or hard fights, because its effects are taken from all of the other stances. When in the Way of the Warden stance, the Warden gains enhanced ICMR and ICPR and an increase in attack speed and an increase in melee damage.

Traits, or Being All The Warden You Can Be

All classes in LoTRO have three trait lines, which are different for each class. In the case of the Warden, the three lines are Way of the Fist, Way of the Spear, and Way of the Shield. As you can probably guess, the traits within each line affect Fist gambits, Spear gambits, and Shield gambits, respectively.

As I've mentioned previously, Warden DPS is a grand joke, so traiting for extra DPS by slotting the Spear line is a pointless endeavor (with that said, slotting the Spear line during the low levels is not an unreasonable choice, because even the weak offensive ability of a Warden can make short work of the weak monsters which populate the early game).

At level 60, with all seven of the class trait slots available, a common trait setup among skilled Wardens is five Shield traits and two Fist traits; another common build is five Shield traits, one particular Fist trait and one particular Spear trait. I'll discuss what those "particular traits" are in a moment. First, why five Shield traits? Because the Shield line's set bonus is the most desirable of the three trait lines. The Shield line's set bonus is as follows:

• 2 equipped: adds a level-dependent bonus to the Warden's block rating.
• 3 equipped: adds a level-dependent bonus to the Warden's evade rating.
• 4 equipped: all heal over time skills heal 10% more per pulse.
• 5 equipped: the legendary trait Way of the Shield can be equipped.

The legendary trait Way of the Shield has the following effects:

• All heal over time effects last for two additional pulses (for most Warden HoTs, that is a 50% increase).
• All HoT effects heal 10% more per pulse.
• The Conviction gambit (that's the threat-transfer-and-party-heal one) heals 30% more.

As you can see, going five deep in Way of the Shield and slotting the legendary Way of the Shield trait significantly increases the Warden's healing ability. Wringing the most out of your self-heals can be critical to success in many situations, because Wardens are less tough than Guardians--pound for pound, we take more damage each time we are hit than a comparable Guardian. With a good healer at your back, that extra damage makes no difference. With a less-than-good healer at your back, or if things are simply getting out of hand and the healer cannot attend to you immediately, the ability to recover your own morale with robust self-heals is invaluable. Thanks to their healing ability, Wardens can also tank many things acceptably well even without a dedicated healer in the party.

Now, about those two "particular traits" I mentioned. There is a trio of incredibly useful traits called Master of the Shield, Master of the Spear, and Master of the Fist. When any of those traits is slotted, the Warden gains two new in-combat skills which instantly add two gambit icons to the Gambit Panel, without requiring an attack. For example, slotting Master of the Shield adds the skills "Shield and Spear" and "Shield and Fist." As you can probably deduce, using the "Shield and Spear" skill adds a Shield icon and a Spear icon to the Gambit Panel, in that order. Likewise, slotting Master of the Spear grants the skills "Spear and Shield" and "Spear and Fist." These combo skills have a cooldown of fifteen seconds, and they do not share their cooldowns. This means that a skilled Warden can build gambits nearly instantly by combining these two-icon skills in the correct order, which gives an amazing ability to respond rapidly to changing battlefield conditions.

Let me provide some examples by way of illustration. The gambit Exultation of Battle (Fist, Spear, Shield, Fist, Shield) takes some time to build, thanks to its two Fist icons. As I mentioned previously, the long animation of Warden's Taunt (the skill which adds a Fist icon) means that gambits with Fist icons are slower to build than gambits without. The two-icon combo skills have no animation associated with them. When you trigger one of the combo skills, its two icons simply appear in the Gambit Panel with no muss and no fuss. So, a Warden who has slotted some of the two-icon traits could build Exultation of Battle by using the following skills: "Fist and Spear" followed by "Shield and Fist" followed by "Shield Bash" (the Shield icon skill). Rather than executing five attack skills--including two of the slow Warden's Taunts--this Warden has built the Exultation of Battle gambit with only three skills, no Warden's Taunts, and only one attack skill.

Another example: The Boot (Spear, Shield) is the shortest gambit which interrupts inductions. Many monsters in the game can use healing skills on themselves or other monsters, and some of those heals are truly staggering in how much health they restore. Therefore, interrupting those inductions can often be the difference between an easy victory and a long, costly battle. When a monster begins a healing induction, the Warden must finish whatever he is doing at the moment (such as being in the middle of an attack animation), then clear his Gambit Panel and build The Boot, then trigger The Boot. For some monsters which have short inductions, that could easily be too long, and allow them to complete their heal. Now consider a Warden who has the trait "Master of the Spear" slotted, giving him the skill "Spear and Shield." In other words, that Warden can build The Boot with the push of a single button and without waiting for even one attack animation. The usefulness of that cannot be overstated.

Slotting five-deep in the Way of the Shield trait line (including Master of the Shield), then slotting Master of the Spear and Master of the Fist is a build which gives you all six two-icon skills for maximum flexibility. The tradeoff is that you lose the set bonus for having two Fist line traits slotted, which is that all aggro-generating gambits produce 10% more threat. In the big picture, 10% more threat is not a necessarily a dealbreaker, as Wardens can produce a staggering amount of threat even without that bonus. Either choice of trait build is perfectly viable.

Summary

Wardens are a very interesting and engaging class to play, but the style of play that they require is not for everyone. In the hands of a player who enjoys the Warden's playstyle and is willing to take the time to become fluent at it, the Warden is the most versatile tank in the game.

Other Resources

Warden: Tanking Guide from the LoTRO Lorebook. An in-depth look at what makes Warden threat tick and various tanking techniques.
Doc Holiday's Warden-centric blog. A good source for useful tidbits of information about the class.
The Warden section of the LoTRO Forums. Rife with drama and whining, but also excellent information and knowledgeable people. Think of it as offline glff. ;D
A ridiculously awesome chart of every gambit.